


Ambidex

by Kato_Jiku



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, basically a scene in ZTD I really wanted to write, but with FE3H
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:28:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25169218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kato_Jiku/pseuds/Kato_Jiku
Summary: Sylvain is forced to play the AB Game with Felix, and the results turn out to be less than desirable...
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic & Felix Hugo Fraldarius, Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	Ambidex

**Author's Note:**

> So I finally finished playing Zero Time Dilemma, and I immediately had the idea to write this...
> 
> Thank you, Raye, for helping me brainstorm a lot of the larger details even though I didn't get to really include them in this ; A; Maybe I'll revisit this AU some other time, but my brain still hurts just thinking about it lmaooo.

_“All votes have been received. Results will be displayed on the monitor.”_

Sylvain stares dumbly at the screen as Felix turns on him in anger. “What the hell? You tricked me! What happened to us both picking ‘Ally,’ huh?”

No, this isn’t what was supposed to happen! Sylvain shakes his head in a frantic motion. “No, I swear I didn’t trick you! You picked ‘Betray’ the last time we voted, so—”

“What the _hell_ are you going on about? We’ve only done this once!” Felix growls before the bracelet on his wrist injects him with the muscle relaxant, making him collapse to the ground.

Sylvain is immediately at his side, helping Felix sit upright.

“What the hell, asshole?” Felix’s breathing is labored, and he can barely keep his eyes focused. “Don’t act like you didn’t plan this.”

If Sylvain wasn’t already holding Felix, he’d be pulling his hair out in frustration by now. “You’re the one who killed me first!”

Even as the words leave his mouth, he knows it isn’t making any sense. Sylvain is alive and breathing at this very moment. Obviously not dead. So how does he even know about a “last time”? When could that have even happened if this was supposed to be the “first time”?

A memory not of this history surges to the forefront of his brain. The same monitor had displayed the exact opposite outcome that time. Felix had betrayed him while Sylvain trusted Felix and picked “Ally.” Sylvain feels a surge of resentment just at the thought of it.

_“There’s a Japanese saying—‘Assume everyone you meet is a thief.’” Felix’s lips curl in a sneer as he gazes down at a Sylvain who is on the ground, struggling to breathe. “It means you should never trust strangers so easily.”_

Sylvain realizes he’s been through this before. As a firefighter, he’d always known what actions would lead to Death without ever being able to discern why. But how in the world is that possible?

Before Sylvain can even get a grasp on what’s happening, he’s sharply hit by a blunt force at the back of his skull. As his vision fades to black, the last thing he sees is Annette standing over him. Rage-filled tears are streaming down her face as she readies the makeshift bludgeon in her hands to deliver another blow.

“How dare you kill Felix!”

* * *

Sylvain blinks as his eyes come back into focus. He’s back outside the AB Room with Felix kneeling next to an unconscious Annette.

“Wait, is this before the AB Game?”

“What?” Felix asks, perplexed. When Sylvain remains quiet, he raises a brow. “Should I keep going?”

Sylvain’s thoughts swirl in his mind as he nods his head.

Felix looks back down to the girl in his arms. “I always saw her sitting in a corner, curled up hugging her knees, and all alone.”

He’s heard these words before. Directly from Felix himself. Sylvain recites the rest of Felix’s story verbatim. “‘I decided I’d stay by her side, to watch over and protect her if I could. Then one day, her beloved rabbits were killed by some stupid middle-schoolers having “fun.” She went to their hutch, crying and apologizing over and over to them.’”

“How… do you know that?” Felix asks. “Did Annette tell you?”

“No…” Sylvain answers as he continues to parse whatever is going on in his brain. Whatever this is, it’s beyond just regular déjà vu. He knows he’s literally experienced all of this five minutes ago.

“You aren’t going to give me a straight answer then.” Felix huffs a sigh. “Fine. I guess there’s no point talking about this. Let’s just get these votes—”

Sylvain’s stomach lurches horribly. “No, wait!” He shakes his head as visions of a monitor flash into view again. “Whatever I chose in the AB Game, it was always the worst outcome. We need to find some way to work around it…”

“What are you talking about?” Felix asks as Annette begins to regain consciousness.

Sylvain recounts his past choices to them then, bringing Annette up to speed on the situation after she had accidentally electrocuted herself.

“I believe what you just did was SHIFT, Sylvain,” Annette explains.

“Shift?”

“Spacetime Human Internal Fluctuating Transfer. A phenomenon where one’s mind crosses space and time,” she clarifies.

“Annette, is that…” Felix lets his question trail off, but Annette finishes it for him.

“The power we used a year ago? The ability to send and receive information through the morphogenetic field. It’s a simpler version of this.”

“So then the me here at this moment came from a different history?” Sylvain feels he’s beginning to somewhat understand.

Annette nods. “Well, it’s mostly just your consciousness. Your consciousness is inhabiting this body now because it switched places with this body’s consciousness. Which means the Sylvain who was here originally…”

The realization rams into him like a freight train. “He died in the other history…” Sylvain stares down in horror at his hands. That’s basically the same as murdering his other self.

“You shouldn’t get too upset, Sylvain,” Annette says placatingly. “That’s just the way SHIFTing is.”

“But how did you know Sylvain was able to SHIFT?” Felix asks as he bumps Sylvain’s shoulder to snap him out of his guilt. It works somewhat. Only to make him remember Felix killed him in another timeline. But that wasn’t this Felix, right…?

“He mentioned before that he knows which path ends in Death, and which is safe. I just sort of knew, too,” Annette replies. “When we are threatened by a crisis, it’s easier for us to access the morphogenetic field.”

“So that’s what it was.” Sylvain feels he understands this all a little better now.

“So,” Annette looks between Sylvain and Felix before continuing, “shall we SHIFT?”

“What?”

“There’s really no reason to play the AB Game,” she explains. “As it stands right now, it’s likely the both of you will choose ‘Ally.’ Instead of going through that, it’d be better to SHIFT to another history.” At Sylvain and Felix’s equally skeptical faces, Annette insists, “It’ll work! The three of us will definitely be able to do it! But only if we find ourselves in danger…”

Sylvain decides he doesn’t like that look on Annette’s face.

* * *

“ _You’re really turning the reactor into a bomb?_ ” Sylvain asks Annette over the blaring sirens.

“Our lives have to be in danger for our SHIFT ability to manifest,” she simply explains.

“Even if we do manage to do this,” Felix argues, “the us from whatever history we switch with will end up—!”

“Do you plan on dying here, then?”

Felix lets out a frustrated sigh.

“So where do we need to jump to?” Sylvain asks. If they argue any further, they’re all going to _die_.

Annette grows silent as the sirens continue to blare.

Felix throws his arms up in the air. “ _You didn’t consider that part?_ ”

“If we knew in advance, the effect of the threat would be lessened.”

_“Two minutes until detonation.”_

“Shit! We’re just gonna have to go for it!” Felix locks eyes with Annette, then Sylvain. “Jump to the same history I am!”

Sylvain struggles not to sound panicked and frustrated. “Which one?”

“There’s a history where we didn’t get all ones on the dice rolls! The moment right after that!”

Another image swims to the forefront of Sylvain’s brain. Suits of armor, all equipped with machine guns, are aimed and ready to fire at the three of them.

“Are you insane?! We’re just going to get ourselves killed!”

“It’s okay.” Felix says, determined. “I have a plan.”

_“Thirty seconds until detonation.”_

“Okay, I trust you, Felix,” Annette says, nodding.

“Dammit!” Sylvain yells in frustration as he joins hands with Annette and Felix. “If we die, I’m going to kill you!”

“Not if I kill you first.”

“ _You already have!_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> I hated writing every minute of this?? I had a whole bunch of stuff planned out, but I didn't even get to use any of it! *cries* I might as well just get this out of the way and not have it looming over my shoulder forever hhh.
> 
> Anyway, uhh I have a twitter @katojiku628 (I'd normally put up a link, but I can't be bothered atm...)  
> It's mostly just retweets, but I post art sometimes, and tweet about video games and stuff.


End file.
